Stuck for a gift idea? – We do gift vouchers! Call us on 0115 911 0555 for more details or email eann@gauntleys.com
Stuck for a gift idea? – We do gift vouchers! Call us on 0115 911 0555 for more details or email eann@gauntleys.com
In 1863 Frederick Charatan opened a shop in Mansell Street, London where he began to carve Meerschaum pipes. These got very popular very quickly and Charatan moved to a bigger workshop in Prescott street. Here he began to make the briar pipes that made the name Charatan World famous.
When his father retired in 1910, Reuben Charatan took over the family business and the business was wholly owned by the Charatan family until 1960 when it was bought over by Dunhill, which in turn was purchased by British American Tobacco.
Things ticked along nicely until British American Tobacco (Dunhill Tobacco of London) made the decision in December 2016 to withdraw from the handmade cigar and pipe tobacco market in 2017. This would lead to the disappearance from the UK Market of the Dunhill pipe tobaccos.
To combat this, and seeing an opportunity to appease the very disappointed, brand-loyal, Dunhill tobbacco smokers, UK based TOR Imports made a successful approach to BAT to purchase the Charatan brand name from Dunhill allowing them to keep the brand alive.
To fill the void left by the Dunhill pipe tobaccos, TOR joined forces with an un-named Global pipe tobacco manufacturer in an attempt to re-create these much loved Dunhill blends. These replica blends went through many months of thorough testing with various pipe clubs around Europe and the UK, before they had achieved the blends they were happy with.
Launched under the Charatan branding, these recreations have proven to be extremely successful, so much so, that many of the pipe smokers said that they couldn’t tell the difference between these and the originals.
Gift Ideas & Vouchers
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